Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sliced bread has a hard crust

I'm convinced Joey Logano is going to be a superstar in NASCAR. But he's going to have a long learning curve before he ever reaches that level.

A good example is what happened in Saturday night's Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Raceway -- now also known as Toyota Raceway -- in California. By now, I'm sure most of you heard that Logano tried a banzai move on the last lap, taking out Peyton Sellers in the process.

Logano punted Sellers into the wall, while continuing on himself to what appeared to be a victory. To many, it was just a simple racing incident: Logano came in a bit too hot, tried to correct too late and Sellers wound up being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Others might be of the opinion that Logano did nothing different than what made the late Dale Earnhardt famous: if you were between him and the checkered flag, you were simply an obstacle that had to be overcome.

And if you wouldn't move, Earnhardt would do that for you.

I've watched the replay of the Logano-Sellers incident several times and yes, Joey did overdrive in that situation. Although given that he's coming off the last turn of the track and the checkered flag is visible in the near distance, I can't fault him for doing what he could to earn the win, whether he made a mistake in the process or not.

Maybe he was trying to imitate Carl Edwards' banzai move last fall at Kansas, when Cousin Carl wound up taking the wall rather than the checkered flag.

But it's what Logano did after the race -- or, more precisely, what he didn't do -- that has my ire and that of many other race fans up. Logano and Sellers had a brief round of not exactly friendly words following the race, according to Mike Caudill, Sellers' spokesman who just happened to call into the Press Pass show on Sirius NASCAR Radio Sunday morning, co-hosted by myself and my good buddy, Pete Pistone (a.k.a. "The Boyz from Illinoiz" (misspelling is intentional).

Logano failed to apologize to Sellers after the race, and likewise to Sellers and the fans that attended the race in post-race interviews.

Bad move, Joey. Bad, bad move.

When you make a mistake, man up for it, dude. If you came in too hot, say so. If your car couldn't hold the line and you rode up the track, then explain it that way.

But to not take any blame and wrecking Sellers' car in the process -- an expense that the sparsely-funded team could ill afford -- is not going to make Logano come out of this incident smelling like roses or endear him.

That's why I'm glad NASCAR and several of its officials stepped in and flagged Logano for overaggressive driving, taking away his win and leaving him dead last in the outcome of the 40-car main event field.

If Logano tries to do something similar in the Sprint Cup Series this year, and instead has words with another driver instead of accepting blame and apologizing, someone is going to hand him his lunch in a hurry. God forbid if Logano gets on the wrong side of guys with the hottest tempers in the sport, including former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and mentor Tony Stewart or Kevin "Put 'em up" Harvick.

Or how about Clint Bowyer or maybe even Robby Gordon? Hell, what if he puts teammates Denny Hamlin or Kyle Busch into the wall if they're fighting for position, let alone a win? The teammate concept will quickly become an every man for himself scenario, much to Logano's chagrin -- and will certainly and quickly wipe that ever-present broad smile off Joey's smiling, boyish face.

Even Coach Gibbs might wish he still had Stewart around, rather than having to deal with two or all three of his stable of young drivers who habitually blame the other guy for some of their own shortcomings.

It's not too late for Logano to learn from Saturday night's debacle. Don't be obstinate or cocky or blame the other guy when it was clearly your fault.

Take the heat, admit you screwed up and a lot more people will respect you than loath you.

If not, Sliced Bread Joey could soon become known as Burnt Toast Logano. Don't say we didn't tell you so, Joey.

22 comments:

If you go back about five laps you will see very clearly that Sellers forced Joey into the wall as he was taking the lead. I can't believe anyone would think that he was not going to get a pay back when Joey got to him King 59

Well said Jerry. Logano has a wealth of talent and most likely be a very successful Sprint Cup driver. Hopefully the Gibbs org. will help him with his obivous shortcommings. If payback was his intention, it sure came back to bite him in the end.

If you look back at the incident with Joey five laps prior you will also notice that Peyton was forced up the track trying not to get collected. Joey blatently drove it in WAY too hard knowing full well the outcome of his actions. He's young, but not stupid. He has wealth of stock car experience under his belt and has been testing JGR COT's for nearly 2 and a half years now. Peyton is the real loser in this situation, his hard work and determination have lead him to running up front in nearly every race with ill outcomes due to other drivers mistakes.Wake up King 59.

If he talked to the guys right after the race, I'm sure he wasn't sorry at that point. He was probably still believing that he was in the right. How many other guys to you see apologize when they're nose to nose with the guy they did wrong?

Win it or wreck it on the last lap. I am tired of milk toast drivers holding back for fear of offending some fans, a sponsor, or the Nascar dictatorship. I am tired of generic race cars with Nascar approved decal packages to offer some form of identity for the uniformed fans. Nascar is going to wring every last dollar they can out of the sport and leave us with something akin to the champ car series. ( I attended 27 straight Daytona 500s and 30 straight twin 125s along with at least one trip to most all of the other tracks and now can't afford to spend $2500 for a weekend at the races, so bye bye.)

Why would anyone compare what Dale Earnhardt used to do to a guy who lost control of his car. Dale hit you in the back bumper not on the side of your car and he was in control of his car when he did it.

IF YOU CAN'T BUMP AND BANG A LITTLE BIT,ESPECIALY ON THE LAST LAP,NASCAR SHOULD START A LITTLE BUMPER CAR LEAGUE!THESE ARE PROFESSIONALS AND WHEN THE CHECKER FLAG WAVES,I SAY ITS EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!LOGANO WAS GOING FOR THE WIN AS WERE THE OTHERS AND LIKE OTHERS STATED BEFORE,LOGANO WAS BUMPED AND BANGED ON ALSO.LET THEM RACE!THIS IS A BEAT AND BANG SPORT AND I'M TIRED OF NASCAR GIVING OUT PENALITIES WHEN THEY SHOULD LET THEM RACE A LITTLE BIT. WOULD THEY HAVE PLACED EARNHARDT SR,MARK MARTIN,TONY STEWART ECT. TO 40TH PLACE? I DON'T THINK SO.LOGANO IS THE VICTIM HERE AND HE DESERVES BETTER THAN WHAT HE GOT SATURDAY NIGHT!AS JOEY SAID,HE WON THE RACE BUT GOT 40TH PLACE!

I AGREE TOTALLY WITH ANONYMOUS. THIS WAS SUPPOSE TO BE THE TOYOTA "ALL STAR SHOWDOWN". HOWEVER, WITH NO POINTS INVOLVED IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN ALL OUT GO FOR THR WIN RACE AS LOGANO DID.I DON'T GET NASCAR AT ALL. ARE THEY GOING TO PENILIZE THE DRIVERS AT THE ALL STAR RACE AT CHARLOTTE FOR " ROUGH DRIVING" ON THE LAST LAP? C'MON NASCAR WHATS THE PURPOSE FOR THIS EVENT IF THE DRIVERS CAN'T BEAT AND BANG FOR THE WIN?

How many of you have actually had to turn the wrenches and foot the bill for these racecars, just to have some kid who's not paying his own way trash the majority of your investment? Joey is a victim of this Nascar Youth Movement. Let them learn how to drive where they're supposed to, not on a mutli-million dollar stage with corporate America's money. Personally, give me a stand-up gentleman racer anyday. Those are the ones I pay to see. The rough stuff is what makes me keep my money in my pocket and change the channel on Sundays.

First of all,Glad to see your name back in print, Jerry. Now, what exactly did you expect from sliced bread? Take a look at all of his "mentors". When did you ever hear Tony Stewart own up to being in the wrong? Even when he punted his own teammate (Hamlin)? And the same goes for Hamster. And don't even get me started on their teammate, PeeWee Herman! There are quite a few NASCAR fans that agree with me that Joe Gibbs Racing could better be named "PrimaDonna Racing". I realize that having a "guy in a black hat" (like Earnhardt, Sr.) is actually a good thing for the sport, as I know a heckuva lotta folks that are almost more interested in seeing one of these crybabies lose than to see their own favorite drivers win. I can't say that I blame them. Talent or not, they are still all jerks. And maybe, in time, they may grow up and mature a bit, like I've seen in Kurt Busch and, to a lesser degree, Kevin Harvick. I'm hoping that owning and running a team can start to turn Tony around like it seems to have done with Kevin. Keep up the good work!

Jerry, what if you made a Turducken sandwich out of him.. with cranberry sauce of course. Would you eat him? I know I would. I ate a whole Turducken once.... one second your carving the bird and then BOOM..... next minute your sitting there half naked slathered in turkey grease and cranberry sauce making love to it like a mythical bird. Man I love that stuff.

I saw this kind of behavior coming last year. In his first race he complained instead of being happy where he finished. I don't remember his placing, but it was in the top 10. I told my husband that day that "this kid is a jerk".

Funny how he kinda looks like Kyle Busch as a kid too, haha. Boy, I hope Kyle matured some in the offseason. He's got to be this kid's mentor. If not, then you may as well change the company name from JGR to GAP......Givem A Pacifier, and get sponsor ship for the cars from Huggies and Kinder Care!

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